Video: Color correction pt. 4: Medium Skin Tone

The trick with color correcting skin is that there are so many different types of skin, that's what makes things so interesting and so beautiful. So, you got to use these numbers as a bit of a recipe, not as a formula, it doesn't always work. It's not a one to one kind of thing. Let's go ahead and work on this image, "jenny_kim.psd". This is a photograph that was captured by the New York based fashion photographer, Jenny Kim. She is a good friend as well. Thanks Jenny for providing this image for us. What we want to do is color correct this medium tone skin. So let's go ahead and do that. We'll grab our eyedropper tool by pressing the I key and we're going to go ahead and set a few points. I'm going to set a point back here in this trap shadow, because that may be helpful.

Photoshop CS3 for Photographers covers all the essential techniques a digital photographer needs to master in order to take advantage of Photoshop's possibilities. Instructor Chris Orwig teaches everything from the key elements to the advanced tools of the application, demonstrating how to apply them for the best photographic results in print or online. He also gets into the nitty-gritty of using Photoshop, from working with Camera Raw to finessing a retouch. Exercise files accompany this training.

Color correction pt. 4: Medium Skin Tone

The trick with color correcting skin is that there are so many different types of skin, that's what makes things so interestingand so beautiful. So, you got to use these numbers as a bit of a recipe, not as a formula, it doesn't always work.It's not a one to one kind of thing. Let's go ahead and work on this image, "jenny_kim.psd". This is a photograph that wascaptured by the New York based fashion photographer, Jenny Kim. She is a good friend as well.Thanks Jenny for providing this image for us. What we want to do is color correct this medium tone skin.So let's go ahead and do that. We'll grab our eyedropper tool by pressing the I key and we're going to go aheadand set a few points. I'm going to set a point back here in this trap shadow, because that may be helpful.

I'm going to set one up on the forehead and then one down, right to the left of this diffused highlight thereand now I have my numbers. Next, I'm going to convert everything but this trap shadow number to CMYK.Let's take those to CMYK, and let's see what's happening. Well, one of the things we're seeing for startersis our magenta and yellow are not anywhere close. Our RGB values, if we want to have a neutral color,those need to be close to equal. That's not going to be an absolute neutral color back there yet,I'm going to use that as somewhat of a reference point. Okay, go ahead and click on the Adjustment layer iconand select Curves. Now, from there I'm going to start with my Blue yellow channel. I'm going to go aheadand press Cmd or Ctrl + 3, or choose Blue from the dropdown menu. Next, I'm going to click on these points,kind of see where these tones are. They're up high, so knowing that they're up here on this areaof the Curves dialog window, I'm going to start up there and what I need to do is just get my yellows,and my magentas closer together. So, I'm looking at both of these. These are now close, that one's a little bit higher,so I'm just going to kind of dial that in. That looks pretty good right there. Now, my RGB numbers are actually,surprisingly much closer, 12, 10 and 10, telling me that the number that that's on is pretty neutral,so I'm in pretty good shape. Now, my red cyan is a little bit low. It could work, because I could say multiply three timesthree equals nine. Multiply three times five equals 15. So, I'm right in the range, although I think I need to do a little bitof work on that channel. Cmd or Ctrl + 1 or select the Red channel. Again, those are going to be these values way uphere. So, I could get away with taking this down a little bit, and that looks pretty good. Now that I've brought that up,and again, this is going to be the number where there's the most variation. Three by five is 15, two by five is 10.

So, I'm right in the range for all my numbers and my RGB values are 10, 10 and 10, telling me that trap shadowis actually neutral. So that trap shadow in this case actually saved me in regards to my color correction.Click OK and now let's look at our before and after. So here's the before with the color shift, you know, a lot of timeswhen you color correct, you don't realize how bad it is until you actually fix it, there's the after.Another thing you have to do is when you color correct, there's a split second when you turn the color off,where you see the complimentary color. The long and short of it, just wait a second, take a look at itand then make your decision and say, are we going on in the right direction? Yes, by the numbers we are.

Our neutral point, our skin tones, everything is in a really good spot and that image looks a heck of a lot betterand that wraps up our work on this image.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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